The three city greenhorns Mitch
Robbins, Phil Berquist and Ed Furillo are always looking for the
ultimate kick to escape their troubled daily routine of midlife-crisis,
divorce and job. When Mitch celebrates his 39th Birthday his two friends
are making him a special present: An adventurous two-week cattle drive
from New Mexico to Colorado as the ultimate wild west experience for
troubled City Slickers. Trek boss Curly, one of the last hard men
in the west, is turning the three boys into real cowboys during their
drive. The movie is obviously about discovering the old way of the west
and all the romanticism that comes with it. Audience responses were
surprisingly striking and turned this mix of comedy and nostalgia into a
box office hit which catapulted actor, executive producer and co-writer
Billy Crystal into comedian heaven. Jack Palance's excellent albeit
short performance as Curly, the rough trek boss even convinced the
academy which earned him his one and only Oscar for best actor in a
supporting role (and he was so energized that he made one-armed push ups
on the stage). The sequel that followed three years later did not even
generate half of the success of the original.

The score:

The film was not only the big break for
Billy Crystal but for composer Marc Shaiman as well. Shaiman already got
recognition for his work on the critically acclaimed drama Misery
(1990) and another Billy Crystal vehicle When Harry Met Sally
(1989) which earned him an ASCAP award. Therefore it does not surprise
that Shaiman would provide his musical talent to every new Billy Crystal
production that followed. Shaiman's contribution to the film was
essential because music has always played a very important role in
western movies since Elmer Bernstein's big sky romanticism in films like
The Magnificent Seven (1960) and it was therefore a crucial tool
to re-create the western experience for City Slickers. Shaiman
successfully provided a dynamite big sky theme that was doing just that
while the composer also added a jazzy tone for these city guys that come
into the wild west. Composer Hummie Mann provided the film with
additional music.

Shaiman's music for the "Main Titles"
cartoon is featured in the first track of the CD. It goes from wacky and
bouncy western tones over jazz to a waltz... the obligatory crazy
mickey-mousing that you would expect from toon-music. Mitch's midlife
crisis and "Career End" is accompanied by some downbeat jazz and a
depressive solo trumpet which has a slightly Italian character. More
depressive tones for woodwinds are heard at the beginning of "Find Your
Smile" until the big sky main theme suddenly kicks in when we leave the
grey urban environment and are suddenly catapulted into the wild west.
The second half of the lengthy six-minutes-cue offers more of the theme
and some romantic tones for harmonica and guitar. Wacky tones return in
"Walking Funny" with wild harmonica playing and the jazzy clarinet tune
from the "Main Title"."Cowabunga" is a really cool action
cue... well, not really as it is actually a completely insane gospel
arrangement with a catchy rhythm that makes your legs move in excitement
and a joyful choir screaming together with the sax for the scene when
the herd is going crazy. No wonder that one
of Shaiman's next assignments was for Sister Act (1992).

"Young
At Heart" is a soft song performed by Jimmy Durante which certainly has
some mushy charm. A new lovely theme for strings for the little calve
Norman is introduced in "Birth Of A Norman" which goes into sad tones for woodwinds and harmonica when his
mother-cow dies. "The River" is one Shaiman's first full-blown action
cues which already sounds very mature if you consider that he had never
done anything like that before. But the cue is full of dramatic twists
and turns with fanfares and dramatic string writing while the main theme
plays a leading role just like the city cowboys in the film when they
are trying to cross a river with the herd. The cute Norman's theme is
heard at the end when they survived the mayhem and rescued the little
calve and the herd. After a wacky trumpet solo we get more of Shaiman's
prairie romance with a variation of the main theme for strings which
goes into a driving (or riding?) and joyful variation of the same tune
for full orchestra as the finale of the score when the city guys have
overcome their emotional crisis. The CD is closed by a lovely ballad
composed by Marc Shaiman and performed by James Ingram that showcases
Shaiman's incredible talent for writing excellent songs.

RATING:

Score as
heard in the film:
73%

Score as
heard on CD:71%

TOTAL:
72%

The presentation:

Shaiman's score for the first film was
released by Varese Sarabande and since the fees were rather high and
Marc Shaiman was a newcomer at the time, the amount of score comes down
to barely 30 minutes. While this is a little bit sad it might still
represent the lion's share of what Shaiman did for the film because
Hummie Mann provided it with additional music that was probably not that
easy to license. The CD is limited to the most important moments of what
Shaiman did and therefore comes as an ordinary score release with no
extras of any kind. You might want to hurry if you plan to get it
because the album seems to be OOP but can still be found at online
shops.

Presentation by
the Label:51%

Summary:

The highly entertaining score for the incredibly
successful City Slickers can be seen as Shaiman's breakthrough
work. It showcases his talent for writing catchy tunes and entertaining
arrangements for various genres of music. The big sky main theme is
absolute dynamite and while it suffers from the rather small orchestral
ensemble used for the recording it receives the full treatment in the
score for the sequel. The only thing that this composition suffers from
is a noticeable lack of consistency because it goes from cartoon music
in the "Main Titles" to depressive jazz in "Career End" to full
orchestral western music in "Find Your Smile" to gospel in "Cowabunga"
without much of a connection or guide. That makes it a diverse listening
experience but some of Shaiman's musical choices can be really confusing
if you have not seen the film before. Both scores for City Slickers are
highly recommended but if you take a personal suggestion: Start with
this one before you get the sequel score. You might end up being a
little disappointed with this one if you start with Shaiman's bigger,
more matured and consistent score for City Slickers 2 - The Legend Of
Curly's Gold (1994).